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My son who is now 37 had ADHD as a child. He was having behavior problems in kindergarten, so his teacher suggested Ritilin. Wanting to help him, I took him to the Drs., he presribed it for him. Well within 2 monthes I took him off of it. I didn’t like they way he acted on the drug. During that 2 monthes, I did as much research as I could.(no internet back then) I found the Feingold Diet. The premise is, no artificial colors, flavoring or salicylates. The diet did wonders, the hard part was to make sure he didn’t sneak things. I new it immediatley when he did. As far as sweets are concerned, sugar won’t hurt them in moderation as long as the coloring, flavoring, and salicylates aren’t included. I bought Carob, or made Carob desserts for him. Chocolate has salicylates, so do apples. I’m sure you can find information on the Dr. Feingold Diet on the web, or get his book on Amazon or any other book seller. I hope this helps. Good Luck!
I know a lot of parents who ditched the mind-altering drugs and cocaine knock-offs in favor of the Feingold Diet only to see their children make great improvements in their behavior and learning abilities. I read an article recently that listed all the food colorings and the side effects they produce, and voila, most of them caused problems that result in an ADD diagnosis — attention problems, jitteriness, headaches, etc. Maybe in 10,000 years the human body will have evolved enough to process all the poisons that the FDA allows to be put into the food chain, but until then, those preservatives and additive cause a host of physical and mental changes in people who regularly consume them and alot of the food products that are the most heavily contaminated are marketed to our children and their parents.
Interesting article, I eat a pretty balanced diet and just take a good multi, aged garlic and omega-3. My old ENT dr. also felt supplements were a complete waste of money, he also wanted to treat me with antibiotics(did’nt work the first time) more ab’s then prednisone for what he thought was a sinus infection. I passed on the second round of ab’s found my current dr. who quickly pointed out I probaly had an Allergy(which after testing I did). That was after a month of being totaly perplexed about my condition(me and the ENT). Note to all chronic sinus sufferers: get tested for allergies!
Most Americans I know have a god aweful diet and on top of that all the stress and all the pollutants we encounter in our modern lives, good supplementation probably is a good idea! Perhaps when we can all live in Costa Rica eat healthy amounts of fish, fruits and veggies and hopefully minimize our stress then you can leave the vitamins at home. Regarding the neuroscience labs, they actually test your urine and return a report to your doctor that shows neurotransmitter levels(they test for about 14, I think). You are obviously well read on all this Maravilla so you can perhaps contact them regarding there testing etc…My tests came back showing my seritonin levels(and one other-can’t remember) were 50% lower than what they consider a normal range, this did match my symptoms and the amino acid supplements I took got those levels up and got me feeling better. They seem to have some good people working for them doing interesting research. also have had terrific results with homeopathic medicines and a conventional dr./scientist will tell you there is no basis for these meds to work. However since so many people are getting relief with these medicines some, even large hospitals have clinics useing them(of course in Europe homeopathy is practiced by almost all Md’s). A doctor at Beth Israel here in NYC who runs there alternative medicine clinic said in an interview, there is no science to validate the results(does not fit there model) but he shrugged his shoulders and said they are working and people want them. All that aside there are many brilliant scientists out there who are driven purely for results and conquering disease doing mind blowing research, I am not anti science. And a lot of these people are funded/working for what we call”big pharma”(not that i’m loving them!). Some of the work surounding the humam genome and the role genes play in disease(such as cancer) and protiens is really quite amazing. Regarding a doctor in C.R. I don’t know of any others than the ones I have met at CIMA and one at the hospital in Nicoya. All of them I felt were compassionate and quite thorough in there care of me on two occasions, quite a different experience than a hospital here in NYC. I have seen some articles written by a Naturopath who was living in Nosara in the Tico Times though. I also went to a great accupuncturist in Jaco. Simple living, high thinking, stay away from all those processed junk foods out there…thats a good foundation for health! Pura Vida!
Most allopathic doctors have absolutely no faith in supplements because they’ve been inculcated with the party line from Big Pharma, which is to rx money-making drugs that don’t usually cure a damn thing, but only manage symptoms. Yes, I am very knowledgeable about the dealings of Big Pharma, the lies they tell us to sell drugs, and how they could not care less if what they sell kills or cripples you. I’ve written extensively on the corruption in the FDA and Big Pharma, and have advocated for full disclosure of products approved by the FDA for the safety of all our citizens. In the latest scandal, California is seeking criminal charges against the execs at E-Lie Lily over one of their drugs that they’ve known for ten years was dangerous and should never have been on the market. If I were sick, I would never take a drug that had not been on the market for at least 20 years! Your allergy problem is a perfect example — they’d rather give you drugs to quell your symptoms rather than finding the cause of your problems. Whatever they measured in your urine are the metabolites from the chemicals in your brain and body. They can represent deficiencies, but most supplements, even most aminos (with the exception of GABA) rarely cross the blood-brain barrier. There are also no standards for how much of any one transmitter you should have therefore deficiencies are also hard to measure as each individual has a different chemical make-up, so boosting this or that transmitter is really hit or miss because there is no way to tell if you got too much or not enough. But if you feel better, and are healthy, that’s a good thing. Most of the health problems in our society are caused by our appalling diet of packaged and processed foods. I like Costa Rica for the availability of abundance of inexpensive fruits and vegetables, which make up at least 50% of my diet. I’d bet that the average Tico is a lot healthier than the average American if for no other reason than he can’t afford to consume large quantities of packaged junk food. I also find that my anxiety level drops immensely in Costa Rica, if only for the absence of the constant fear and paranoia we are bombarded with every day. I’ve also noticed that many Ticos rely on natural remedies, herbs, teas, etc. I even got my kefir grains (a complete surprise!) from a local farmer who extolled the benefits of drinking fermented milk!! I would hope that most people who move to CR would eshew their bad eating habits and opt for the local fare that is available in Cost Rica year round. Another thing I noticed about CR was the lack of obese people — yes, some could lose a few pounds, but I never saw a truly obese Tico!
I had good results with both Gaba and Hydroxy tryptofan and now rely on stress reducing breathing, meditation etc…and feel great! I am guessing you “enjoyed” The Constant Gardener…Chomsky has written some great stuff on B.P. as well. My doctor here in NYC is Kamau Kokayi I think you would enjoy reading some of his opinions, he also has a radio show on wednesdays at 11am? on 99.5fm(pick it up on the internet?) here in NY, it’s pretty radical/political…Pura Vida
Edited on Jan 10, 2007 08:40
Be very careful of 5htp — unless it is taken with another drug to mitigate its effects, you can have serious problems. i think it causes some blood disorder, can’t remember as it’s been years since i did that research. GABA also can cause longterm problems, but the shortterm ones are usually enough to make people quit taking it. tweaking your brain chemistry is never a good idea because the results are totaly unpredictable. i’ll check out your doc’s info and maybe i can get his show here at the office where we have the internet on all the time. I’ve read The constant gardener 3 times and saw the movie twice. there was hardly anything that was written that wasn’t true. a friend of mine who was a hold-out plaintiff in a mass tort litigation case against the largest pharma in the world woke up one day to find two .45 caliber bullets on the windshield of his car. he settled the next day. As leCarre states at the end of the book: these people kill.
Regarding 5htp there was a contaminated batch out of Japan that killed some people, it was a manufacturing problem. I had no short term problems on either, used the ones made by neuroscience for about 3 months. The GABA I used for about a month and have been off them both for over a year. I found no resarch that indicated there could be long term negative side effects. Just some disputes regarding there effectiveness. Although most seem to think both these Amino acids do raise Seritonin levels and once the levels were raised you should stop taking them. My dr. did have me on 2 other things as well but I can not remember what. I must say it worked very well for me.
Edited on Jan 10, 2007 20:45
I had checked into that diet (Feingold)once & from what I could tell, you would have to make everything (bread,etc) yourself. Unless I misunderstood, one could have absolutely no preservatives??
Edited on Jan 11, 2007 07:58
preservatives are deadly to children whose neurological systems are very sensitive to these toxins. imho, nobody should eat food laden with chemicals, some of which cause everything from asthma attacks to anxiety. a chemical free diet is just that — and yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s better than the alternative i.e. being treated for things that are caused by the very food one eats.
it was tryptophan that was contaminated back in 1987, just before prozac hit the streets. 5htp is not tryptophan, it is a precursor. fyi, too much serotonin can be deadly as it causes serotonin syndrome and can be fatal, that’s why it’s really not a good idea to be tweaking your brain chemistry when it can’t be accurately measured to determine if you have too much.
Here is a link on Serotonin syndrome,pretty interesting. http://www.uspharmacist.com/oldformat.asp?url=newlook/files/feat/acf2fa6.htm
Maravilla no more info for me, I get a bit crazy with wanting to research all this stuff.Lol! My final post on this interesting subject, you would never guess this was a forum on travel and real estate in Costa Rica…
Deb,
I live in St. Louis and have recently gone to see an “environmental allergist”. He’s an MD, but has also picked up a tremendous amount of knowledge after finding a non-traditional (pharmaceutical) way to treat severe asthma on himself.His website is http://www.ehacstl.com (his name is Tipu Sultan). He’s found some allergies and things for me that my family doc and “regular” allergist missed. When I was there a couple weeks ago, a lady was there with her son that had been on all sorts of meds for behavior and the like. I overheard her talking to another lady and saying how her son, for the first time, was off meds and doing great. Dr. Sultan has said that depression isn’t a Prozac deficiency. Yes, it sometimes is biochemical, but why are the neurotransmitter levels off in the first place? It’s quite often another issue that is causing the problem…he looks to treat the cause, rather than the symptom. I wish you and your son the best.
I like it when doctors say that depression isn’t a Prozac deficiency, although Big Pharma would have you think that it was. Someone sent me this link with a cartoon about Ritalin and Prozac. Don’t know why parents want to dope their kids on a drug that the Nazis engineered.
Mental “Treatment”
http://www.newstarget.com/021430.html
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